Homeland Security

House Republicans sounded a retreat from a battle that could partially shut down the Homeland Security Department, agreeing to push short-term funding for the agency while leaving in place Obama administration immigration policies they have vowed to repeal.

For all the talk of Republican House Speaker John Boehner being trapped by the quarrel over funding the Homeland Security Department, he holds a potential escape key, if he’s willing to use it: cooperative Democrats.

The deputy director of the Secret Service is resigning his position but will be allowed to accept another unspecified federal job within the Homeland Security Department. As the No. 2 official in command, Alvin “A.T.” Smith managed the agency’s day-to-day operations.

The federal judge assigned to rule in the lawsuit over President Barack Obama’s changes to immigration rules last year accused the Obama administration of participating in criminal conspiracies to smuggle children into the country by reuniting them with parents living here illegally.

The Secret Service response to an armed intruder who jumped the fence and raced into the White House was complicated by muted alarms and radios, thick bushes on the lawn, unlocked doors and an officer inside who was physically too small to tackle the intruder and fumbled with her equipment, according to the Homeland Security Department review of the case.

The investigator who led the Homeland Security Department’s internal review of a prostitution scandal involving Secret Service agents on assignment in Colombia in 2012 has himself resigned over an incident involving a prostitute in Florida, The New York Times reported.